3rd Anniversary Celebration in Port St. Lucie
Port St. Lucie, Florida is the spring training home for the New York Mets Major League Baseball team. The city is also home to an estimated 195,248 people[1], quite a change from the 1970 population of 330 people. Most exciting though is that Port St. Lucie is home to a growing Seventh Day Baptist group!
I just attended the 3rd anniversary of the Prayer Tabernacle SDB that meets in Port St. Lucie, Florida. What a wonderful celebration of what God has been doing in and through Seventh Day Baptists in that area, and is continuing to do in the present. Weekly Bible Studies are being held with involvement in the Study being shared by people from Port St. Lucie and also pastors from supporting churches, including: Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and West Palm Beach. The testimonies that were shared by participants in the Bible Study are powerful—including how God is transforming lives through the studies and fellowship of the group. I am especially grateful for the faithful service that Deaconess Louise Miller and others have provided in and through this group over the past three years.
This is an exciting season for Seventh Day Baptists! The process of this developing group is wonderful to observe: the people are engaging in their community and specifically reaching into their context while surrounding SDB churches are faithfully supporting, sponsoring, and sending to the group. And, most importantly, God is clearly at work in preparing the hearts and minds of people who hear about the hope of Jesus Christ through the work being done by SDB’s in Port St. Lucie.
There is still much work ahead—there are always many hurdles to cross and bridges to build. Joining God in His work is an obvious element in this work, especially in this unique context. One of the fascinating pieces about Port St. Lucie is the statistically high rate of “Spiritual None’s” in the county. The percentage of people in this area who self-identify as completely disengaged from religion is well above the national average—what a great place to endeavor to plant a church! This is a key place for SDB’s to lift up in prayer and encourage the work of our brothers and sisters.
One outstanding way to pray for church planting efforts in places such as Port St. Lucie is to be a member of Team 21. The Team 21 initiative facilitates prayer for new SDB groups and yet-to-be planted SDB groups. The prayer initiative also provides prayer support for planters, leaders, and people yet to be reached by SDB’s. If you would like to invest in Team 21, this is your opportunity. Simply click here for more information and follow the sign-up process to engage. The next prayer focus launches on December 1st—right on time to join up and pray.
Grace and peace,
Carl Greene, Executive Director of the SDB General Conference of USA and Canada
Giving Tuesday is still coming – if you are interested in supporting students to prepare for ministry in new and existing SDB churches, click http://easytithe.com/sdb and select the SDB Scholarship tab.
[1] https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk
Photo courtesy of Pastor Garfield Miller
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